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Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change

Student resources, welcome to the companion site.

This site is intended to enhance your use of  C ases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change , Second Edition ,  by Donald L. Anderson. Please note that all the materials on this site are especially geared toward maximizing your understanding of the material. 

Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change , Second Edition, encourages students to practice organization development (OD) skills in unison with learning about theories of organizational change and human behavior. The book includes a comprehensive collection of cases about the OD process and organization-wide, team, and individual interventions, including global OD, dialogic OD, and OD in virtual organizations. In addition to real-world cases, author Donald L. Anderson gives students practical and experiential exercises that make the course material come alive through realistic scenarios that managers and organizational change practitioners regularly experience.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Donald L. Anderson for writing an excellent text and for creating the case notes on this site.

• Cases and Exercises in Organiz...

Cases and Exercises in Organization Development and Change.

Designed for courses in organization development and change, this is a comprehensive collection of case studies and exercises. Original cases are written by experts in the field and designed to focus very precisely on a specific topic in the OD process or intervention method. Each case is accompanie...

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Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change

• Donald L. Anderson - University of Denver, USA

"Has a number of timely case studies, including ones on non-profit and educational institutions."

An excellent book with lots of applied problems/case studies.

Good cases and excellent overall structure of the book. however, I was also looking for mini-cases

A well written book that has a number of useful cases and activities that will help to link theory to practice for change management and organisational development.

A mix of great, some useful exercises and cases though some seem to be a bit basic and perhaps out of date

Donald L. Anderson

Donald L. Anderson , Ph.D., University of Colorado, teaches organization development at the University of Denver and organization design at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a practicing organization development consultant and has consulted internally and externally with a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 500 corporations, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions. Dr. Anderson’s research interest is in discourse in organizational and institutional settings, and his studies of organizational discourse and change have been published in journals such as the Journal of Organizational Change Management, Gestion , and Journal of Business and Technical Communication . He is the author of the text Organization Design: Creating Strategic and Agile Organizations (SAGE, 2019) and editor of the text Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change (2nd ed., SAGE, 2017).

Ready for Change? pp 145–163 Cite as

Organizational Change and Development: A Case Study in the Indian Electricity Market

• Pawan Budhwar ,
• Jyotsna Bhatnagar &
• Debi Saini  

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The present economic growth of India is largely an outcome of the liberalization of its economic policies in 1991. Since gaining independence in 1947, India adopted a “mixed economy” approach (emphasizing both private and public enterprise). This had the effect of reducing both entrepreneurship and global competitiveness. Despite the formalities of planning, the Indian economy reached its worst in 1990 and witnessed a double digit rate of inflation, decelerated industrial production, fiscal indiscipline, a very high ratio of borrowing to the GNP (both internal and external) and a dismally low level of foreign exchange reserves. The World Bank and the IMF agreed to bail out India at that time on the condition that it changed to a “free market economy” from what at the time was a regulated regime. To meet the challenges, the government announced a series of economic policies, followed by a new industrial policy supported by fiscal and trade policies. A number of reforms were made in the public sector that affected trade and exchange policy. At the same time, the banking sector together with activity in foreign investment was liberalized.

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Further reading

Budhwar, P. and Varma, A. (2011a) (eds) Doing Business in India , London: Routledge.

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Budhwar, P. and Varma, A. (2011b) “Emerging HR Management in India and the way forward”, Organizational Dynamics , 40(4), pp. 317–25.

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Budhwar, P. and Varma, A. (2010) “Guest Editors’ Introduction: Emerging Patterns of HRM in the New Indian Economic Environment”, Human Resource Management , 49(3), pp. 343–51.

Budhwar, P. and Bhatnagar, J. (2009) The Changing Face of People Management in India , London: Routledge.

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Burnes, B. (2006) Managing Change , Harlow: FT Prentice-Hall.

Clardy, A. (2004) “Toward an HRD Auditing Protocol: Assessing HRD Risk Management Practices”, HumanResourceDevelopment Review , 3(2), pp. 124–50.

Kotter, J. P. and Cohen, D. S. (2006) The Heart of Change: Real-life Stories of How People Change their Organizations , Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Ramnarayan, S. (2003) “Changing Mindsets of Middle-level Officers in Government Organizations”, Vikalpa , 28(4), pp. 63–76.

Sharma, R. R. (2007) Change Management: Concepts and Applications , New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

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Budhwar, P., Bhatnagar, J., Saini, D. (2012). Organizational Change and Development: A Case Study in the Indian Electricity Market. In: Rathbone, C.L.H. (eds) Ready for Change?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008404_9

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• Case Studies

Food Co-op Engages Its Members

“There was no way to move forward until we could build consensus around a plan for the future of this organization,” said Paul Cultrera, general manager.

“Things were so bad,” said then board of directors member Peter Keat, “that we literally felt paralyzed as an organization.”

With tensions running high, Cultrera interviewed Eric Douglas of Leading Resources Inc. (LRI). Cultrera was impressed by Douglas’ track record for managing change and gaining consensus within large organizations. “I was looking for someone with really good communication skills,” Cultrera said. “Someone skilled at working with diverse constituencies.”

D2K: Establishing Trust as a Foundation for Long-term Growth

Together Douglas and Cultrera mapped out a five-stage process they called “Directions 2000” or “D2K.” The process was carefully crafted to engage as many member-owners as possible in a productive dialogue with management and each other. At each stage of the process, Douglas guided the participants toward an understanding of the complex business issues under consideration while improving their communication and problem-solving skills. Because the issues were complex, and emotions were running high around the issue of expansion, flexibility had to be at the heart of the process itself.

“Eric has experience working with large, fractured groups, so he was able to bring people together in a constructive manner,” Cultrera said. “As we got into the process and realized that changes needed to be made, he was flexible. He didn’t have a tremendous amount of ego tied up in his own process.”

Stage 1: Identifying Basic Values

“I sat through all 13 of these ‘listening’ sessions and hardly said a word,” Cultrera said. “Eric facilitated them tightly, to the extent that there was a program – but loosely, to the extent that people were able to express themselves very freely. It took me out of it, so there wasn’t this perception of the general manager pushing this thing where he wants it to go.”

Stage 2: Casting a Wider Net

Using input from the focus groups, LRI drafted a survey with 50 questions about values and visions and distributed it to all 7,000 Co-op member-owners. LRI’s analysis of the 1,645 returned surveys confirmed that pricing was most important to members. Member-owners were evenly divided on the question of whether to expand to additional locations. A third issue that came into focus from the survey was the 5% member-owner discount: Owners did not want to give it up, even if it meant they paid higher prices in the store.

Stage 3: Moving Beyond Conflict to Strategy

With the survey data in hand, a group of 25 people – comprised of 15 member-owners, seven members of the Board of Directors and three members of management – began working together as the D2K Planning Team under the guidance of LRI consultants.

Within a few weeks, the team had defined the purpose and values – what Douglas calls the “strategic foundation.” The team then faced the question of vision – and the deep conflict over whether or not the Co-op should expand to a second store.

As a first step, Douglas broke the drafting committee into two teams to generate deeper discussion. The resulting dialogue between the teams ultimately led to a draft vision that called for the Co-op to extend its services “to as many people as possible in the communities we serve.”

“This vision was based on a philosophy of inclusion,” said Keat who was a Planning Team member. “The Co-op offers something very special in the quality of its products, its support for local farmers, and its reliance on cooperative economic principles. Our vision was to share that.”

“We tested this vision again and again within the Planning Team,” Douglas said. As they grew more comfortable, team members used a combination of brainstorming exercises, management input and survey feedback to develop seven key goals to achieve the vision. LRI consultants carefully translated their decisions into a draft strategic plan.

Stage 4: Honoring the Process through Feedback

The resulting feedback was overwhelmingly positive. More than 95% of those responding said they supported the process. More than 90% said they supported the vision.

“Based on our previous experience, I thought we might get 55% in favor and 45% opposed. And then we’d be stuck where we were at the beginning,” Cultrera admitted.”Instead, we got a very high approval rating of each individual piece of the plan.”

Even more surprising: “Many of the member-owners who approved the plan had only been touched tangentially by the process – through taking the survey or reading about it in the Co-op’s newsletter,” Douglas said. “But because they had been touched, they supported the change.”

Stage 5: From Approval to Action

After unanimously voting to approve the plan, the Board handed it over to management to implement. “It makes my job as general manager a whole lot easier,” Cultrera said.

“Now, when we run into pockets of controversy or resistance, it’s very easy to say, ‘Well, thank you. I really appreciate your input. But we heard from a lot of people who said this is what they want us to do.’ I feel like when there are other issues we need to face on a nitty-gritty level, we can call that process up again.”

Roadmap to the Future: From Plan to Action

That opportunity was right around the corner. Fresh from the D2K victory, the Co-op again hired LRI to implement one of the plan’s key initiatives. This was the hot button issue of deciding whether to keep or modify the 5% member-owner discount.

True to the D2K process model, Douglas and Cultrera ensured a high level of member-owner involvement at every stage.

They convened a half-dozen “focus groups” to educate member-owners about the impacts of the discount. As with D2K, a Planning Team representing a broad spectrum of viewpoints was selected by LRI to explore alternatives and make a recommendation to the Board.

“At that point, we ran up against the fact that grocery store finance is not easy,” said Douglas. “Yet the team had to learn it in order to make a cogent decision.” For example, the Co-op marked up prices for most items beyond the normal operating markup to support the 5% member-owner discount. This meant higher prices throughout the store and placed the Co-op at a competitive disadvantage with other natural food store chains in the market.

“There were lots of questions and concerns,” said Barbara Mendenhall, Board president. “Eric finally broke us into small groups and asked us to answer three questions:

‘Is there a problem that needs to be fixed?’ ‘What would you propose as an alternative to the discount?’ and ‘What additional information do you need?’

All of the groups came back and said yes, there is a problem. It needs to be fixed. And here’s what we think the new benefits package should be. The amazing thing was – we all proposed the exact same solution!”

As team members became convinced of the wisdom of changing to the discount structure, some wanted to survey member-owners about the alternatives they were considering. “But a new survey would only confirm what the earlier survey told us,” Douglas said. “Without going through the education process, people would resist giving up the discount.” The team finally agreed to stage a series of forums that would bring member-owners from the Planning Team face to face with fellow member-owners still skeptical about making a change.

It was a critical part of the process that Mendenhall calls “transformative.”

“One planning team member really turned the group around just on the force of her own presentation,” Mendenhall said. “As she talked about what she and the group had gone through, you’d start to see heads nod. You could see she felt it from the heart.”

With positive feedback from member-owners, the Board approved changes to an end-of-the-year patronage refund that has worked well at a number of co-ops throughout the country, combined with special pricing programs such as monthly category specials. Some of the original benefits – such as a 10% discount on Owner Appreciation Days – remained in force.

Moving Ahead with Confidence

“We’ve learned that there are a variety of ways to involve members in decision-making, besides just sending everything out for a member vote,” said Mendenhall. “Communication and cooperative education are very important.”

Cultrera agrees. “Because we kept the lines of communication open with the ownership throughout this long process, we heard from people we had never heard from before. By the end of it, member-owners clearly honored the process, so they trusted the plan. It’s given the organization a tremendous amount of strength and ability to keep moving forward.”

The bottom line:

The Co-op’s annual sales increased to $17 million. Its employees had received an across-the-board pay increase reflecting the plan’s commitment to a quality workplace. Meanwhile, the Co-op had begun looking at new locations for a second store, this time with the clear support of its owners.

We hope you enjoyed this organizational development case study. To schedule an initial meeting with LRI, please contact us online or call 1-800-598-7662.

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Organizational Development Case Study

Organization development case study: introduction.

For any organization to be successful in its field and progress to profitability, it is important that managers and employees in its leadership embrace organizational development. According to Cummings and Worley, “Organizational Development (OD) is a planned long-term effort led and supported through the top management to improve an organization’s ability in a bid to solve its own problems by continuously working together and managing the culture using behavioral skills” (2005, p. 1).

The paper uses the Tedtec Company Limited, which is a fictional organization. The company chosen for this case study is respected in the country of origin. It is among the pioneers of organizational development in the country. Tedtec Company Limited that is located in India has been in operation for the last 70 years dealing with machinery, engineering, production, and construction works.

According to the results of the performance index of India’s companies, Tedtec Company Limited “is also adjudged India’s best managed and most respected company on various attributes of customer delight and shareholder value” (Roy, 2006, p. 25). The case study on organizational development was based on this company because of its significant history in this field in India.

Company profile

Tedtec Company Limited is among the most respected of India’s private sector companies that deal with technology, construction, engineering, and manufacturing. The company has been in existence for about seven decades with a strong international presence including offices in the China as well as her Gulf neighbors.

A wide marketing and distribution network and decades of strong customer focused approach has ensured that the company is the leader in its field. The company also “believes that progress must be achieved in harmony with environment” (Roy, 2006, p. 25). This claim has informed its commitment to protection of the environment and participation in community welfare.

Some of the achievements that the company has made include the record for having made the largest coal gasifier in India that it exports to China.

It is the largest FCC regenerator for a refinery, which is the longest coal conveyer in the world besides being Asia’s highest viaduct and the world’s largest EO reactor for a protochemical complex in the Gulf. The company also took part in the construction of India’s first nuclear powered submarine. It has won a number of local and international awards and recognitions.

The company is also one of the most profitable construction companies in the region with thousands of employees being employed directly or indirectly by the company. A policy of giving back to the society has ensured that the company establishes good relations with workers and the communities in which it is involved, with only the issue of pollution being the major challenge.

Tedtec Company Limited has however managed to remain viable and important within the manufacturing and construction sector even with the financial crisis experienced over the years in this part of the world and elsewhere in the world.

Diagnostic methods

The methods used for diagnosis in this particular organization included interviews and questionnaires, which were addressed to the employees in the organization. Initially, the company had experienced faults in its existing appraisal system at some point in its history. This challenge necessitated a professional correction of the system.

The company elicited help from some of experts in this field with eminent professors being invited to carry out a study and assessment of the appraisal process in the company (Wilson, 2003, p. 13). Walter Jay and Engineer Schwartz Raymond were the professors that were consulted in the evaluation process for the company.

In their study of the appraisal process in the company, they began by interviewing departmental heads and their subordinates. To accomplish the interview, they used diagnosis or action research with the results being recorded and analyzed against a background of other results they had gotten elsewhere and against the existing case studies.

Analysis and feedback methods

From the diagnostic methods used in the company, a number of feedbacks were obtained. In the analysis of information provided by the subordinates in the various departments, there was apparent communication breakdown in the administrative hierarchy with junior workers not getting information and feedback on their performance in the company.

This case was despite their expressed a desire to get the feedback, which was not forthcoming. Another interpretation of the results of the feedback included the fact that the managerial staff members were responsible for a large number of employees thus making an appraisal of their subordinates difficult.

However, one shortcoming was that the appraisal form used was too lengthy meaning that the number of employees participating was reduced due to time constraint.

The results of the feedback were presented by the two professors to the top management of the company for consideration and formulation of suggestions and recommendations on the possible solutions to the actual problem.

According to Cummings and Worley, an appraisal system is important in any organization as it helps the company’s employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and the progress they are making in the job performance (2005, p. 15).

It also enables them to understand the options available for growth in the company. Cummings and Worley claim that the process should “address the issues of appraisal, potential, counseling, career development, and training all in one” (2005, p. 15).

SWOT analysis

As in the case of IKEA that was discussed as a case study, Tedtec Company Limited used SWOT analysis in the achievement of objectives and planning of its strategic achievements.

As discussed in the essay and in the literature on planning strategies in organizations, this form of analysis investigates the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that an organization establishes in its course of operations and development (Cummings, & Worley, 2005, p. 15).

According to Cummings and Worley, threats are external to an organization, and are outside the control of the company with the best examples being economic performance of the country, the levels of technology at the time, social changes, and the environmental conditions (2005, p. 24).

On the other hand, strengths and weaknesses are internal to an organization thus serving to counter the threats that are outside the organization’s control (Cummings, & Worley, 2005, p. 25).

As an opportunity, Tedtec Company Limited has over the years invested in manufacturing and construction industry. It boasts of creating a respected brand in India. The company has been in existence since 1938 when it started as a manufacturer of daily equipment.

Therefore, it has a well-established organizational culture and management policies that stand the test of time. The company also has vast investments in technology, investing heavily in the latest technology available in the industry. This opportunity has created a competitive edge over her competitors.

As strength, the organizational culture in the organization has been described as a goal-oriented one with the employees largely reporting career satisfaction when working with the company.

The company has invested in a number of international brands mainly in the region thus ensuring relevance and competitiveness in the industry. With diversification of its operations, the organization is now able to produce different products besides offering a range of services in the region.

A significant weakness that the organization has established in its operations is the pollution that has been created in the production method in the process of rectification following the ambitious investment in environmental conservation and social responsibility.

The company also faces a threat in operations in the form of the financial crisis that, as demonstrated in the last one, has the ability to paralyze its operations. The threat is however countered by the cautious financial investment in other market coupled with strict financial auditing and consultations.

OD intervention options and general risk and value scenarios

The assessment of risks in an organization is important as it enables the management to formulate the desired change and effect on it. This assessment is quite crucial for any company since it makes it aware and ready for any particular risk that it might incur.

Many companies have experienced an untimely closure following the occurrence of risks that it did not expect or rather risks that were not planned for in the event of their occurrence.

For Tedtec Company Limited, the specific interventions that were necessary included diversification of products and expansion into other markets to counter the decline in demand in the home country in a bid to create new opportunities to secure industrial relevance.

In the analysis of vales, one of the relevant values to the company is customer service. The company has established a number of methods of ensuring the customers are loyal to it. Customer loyalty is recognized as one of the factors leading to the success of many organizations and that the company is no exception (Cummings, & Worley, 2005, p. 25).

To guarantee exceptional customer service, organizations need to have an effective indicator in place (Cummings, & Worley, 2005, p. 21). For Tedtec Company Limited, customer loyalty rating is the key indicator. The organization has commissioned a number of surveys to find out the satisfaction of its clients on its products and services.

According to Cummings and Worley, this strategy is an effective way of doing it (2005, p. 21). The results have then been used to gauge performance and or inform decision-making.

The expected benefits include improved service provision and customer satisfaction as well as profitability. The company also utilizes feedback from clients especially complaints that are provided as feedback to change its operations.

Since Tedtec Company Limited carries out many civil projects that are funded by the Indian government and other governments, the quality of work is also evaluated by government contractors as well as other state agencies concerned with quality control (Cummings, & Worley, 2005, p. 25).

This ensures a subjective review of products and services provided thus ensuring that there is quality in the future projects. The strategy has enabled the company to win a number of tenders based on previous projects that were evaluated as being professionally carried out.

Evaluation methods

According to Cummings and Worley, post change evaluation in an organization is important since it presents the executives with a picture of the effects of the change (2005, p. 17) made by the change agent “in consultation with the management of the organization” (Wilson, 2003, p. 23). Wilson also states, “The evaluation sets initial agreed aims and objectives against the current, post-change situation” (2003, p. 23).

In the analysis made of Tedtec Company Limited, the attitude and satisfaction of workers as well as the financial outlook and performance ratings were made thus being some of the most common areas of evaluations in an organization development analysis.

The results of the evaluation were then presented to the management. The summary consisted of areas where the effected change was successful, recommendation for improvement, areas that were unsuccessful and not in line with the company objectives, areas that required constant monitoring, and the suggested rolling evaluation program.

For Tedtec Company Limited, the results showed success in areas of change such as improved organizational performance since the entry of the firm in to the international market.

The change in organizational culture, which was made mainly involving the diversification of the employee base, was also reported to influence the company in a positive manner with the employees reporting improved satisfaction from the working conditions.

The employees also reported a breakdown in communication and ineffective management mainly due to the large size of the personnel department, which was created by expansion. This exposition meant that the employees were getting inadequate attention from their bosses.

Recommendations

One of the recommendations is that the company should consider splitting or bifurcation of the personnel department in the company to ensure that fewer employees are under the supervision of managers in the various departments. It is said that the smaller the number of subordinates that each manager is responsible for, the better the output of the employees (Wilson, 2003, p. 21).

The company should also consider increasing the number of managerial staff especially those in the human resource department in an attempt to improve the contact between the administration and subordinates (Wilson, 2003, p. 18). Another recommendation is that the organization should monitor the human resource department and the marketing department to enhance customer loyalty.

OD Case Study: Conclusion

In conclusion, organizational development is an important aspect in the success of companies. Organizations that wish to perform well have a well established organizational development plan that stipulates the issues that they need to do or rather the issues that they need to be aware of so that they remain not only in track but also ready for any unexpected emergency.

The paper has used the Tedtec Company Limited as a fictional company in an attempt to address this key issue of organizational development. Thus, its evaluation should be carried out in a formal manner. Tedtec Company Limited is considered to have made significant organizational changes since its inception. The changes have affected its operations in a number of ways.

An evaluation of its organizational development established a number of threats, weaknesses, and strengths, as well as the effects of the organizational change. These elements were then evaluated with recommendations and suggestions being made to the development specialists and business executives of the organization.

Short Case Study on Change Management

A short case study on change management can be very helpful in learning how to manage change effectively. In today’s business world, change is constantly happening and it can be very difficult to keep up.

Having a solid understanding of change management is essential for any manager or business owner.

A good case study will show you how one company successfully managed a major change and what lessons can be learned from their experience.

By studying short case study on change management, you will gain valuable insights into the importance of planning, communication, and employee involvement when managing change.

You will also learn about the different stages of change and how to overcome resistance to change.

These are all important topics that any manager or business owner should be familiar with. Learning about them through a short case study is an excellent way to gain a better understanding of these concepts.

Here are 05 short case studies on change management that offer you valuable insights on managing change.

1. Adobe- a transformation of HR functions to support strategic change

Many a times external factors lead to changes in organisational structures and culture. This truly happened at Adobe which has 11,000 employees worldwide with 4.5 billion $ yearly revenue.

Acrobat, Flash Player, and Photoshop are among the well-known products of Abode.

Due to new emerging technologies and challenges posed by small competitors Adobe had to stop selling its licensed goods in shrink-wrapped containers in 2011 and switched to offering digital services through the cloud. They gave their customers option of downloading the necessary software for free or subscribing to it every month rather than receiving a CD in a box.

The human resource (HR) function also took on a new role, which meant that employees had to adjust to new working practices. A standard administrative HR function was housed at Adobe’s offices. However, it was less suitable for the cloud-based strategy and performed well when Adobe was selling software items. 

HR changed its role and became more human centric and reduced its office based functions.

The HR personnel did “walk-ins,” to see what assistance they might offer, rather than waiting for calls. With a focus on innovation, change, and personal growth, Adobe employed a sizable percentage of millennials.

Instead of having an annual reviews, staff members can now use the new “check-in” method to assess and define their own growth goals whenever they find it necessary, with quick and continuous feedback. 

Managers might receive constructive criticism from HR through the workshops they conduct. The least number of employees have left since this changed approach of HR.

Why did Adobe’s HR department make this change? Since the company’s goals and culture have changed, HR discovered new ways to operate to support these changes.

2. Intuit – applying 7s framework of change management 

Steve Bennett, a vice president of GE Capital, was appointed CEO of Intuit in 2000. Intuit is a provider of financial software solutions with three products: Quicken, TurboTax, and QuickBooks, which have respective market shares of 73 percent, 81 percent, and 84 percent. 

Despite this market domination, many observers believed Intuit was not making as much money as it could.

Additionally, the business was known for making decisions slowly, which let rivals take advantage of numerous market opportunities. Bennett desired to change everything.

In his first few weeks, he spoke with each of the top 200 executives, visited the majority of Intuit’s offices, and addressed the majority of its 5,000 employees.

He concluded that although employees were enthusiastic about the company’s products, internal processes weren’t given any thought (based on Higgins, 2005).

He followed the famous Mckinsey 7S Model for Change Management to transform the organization. Let’s see what are those changes that he made:

By making acquisitions, he increased the products range for Intuit.

He established a flatter organizational structure and decentralized decision-making, which gave business units more authority and accountability throughout the whole product creation and distribution process.

To accomplish strategic goals, the rewards system was made more aligned to strategic goals.

He emphasized the necessity of a performance-oriented focus and offered a vision for change and also made every effort to sell that vision.

He acknowledged the commitment of staff to Intuit’s products and further strengthened process by emphasizing on quality and efficiency of his team.

Resources were allotted for learning and development, and certain selected managers were recruited from GE in particular skill categories, all to enhance staff capabilities concerning productivity and efficiency.

Superordinate goals:

Bennett’s strategy was “vision-driven” and he communicated that vision to his team regularly to meet the goals.

Bennett’s modifications led to a 40–50% rise in operating profits in 2002 and 2003.

8,000 people worked for Intuit in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and other nations in 2014, and the company generated global revenues of nearly $5 billion.

3. Barclays Bank – a change in ways of doing business

The financial services industry suffered heavily during mortgage crisis in 2008. In addition to significant losses, the sector also had to deal with strict and aggressive regulations of their investing activities.

To expand its business, more employees were hired by Barclays Capital under the leadership of its former chief executive, Bob Diamond, who wanted to make it the largest investment bank in the world. 

But Barclays Capital staff was found manipulating the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and Barclays was fined £290 million and as a result of this the bank’s chairman, CEO, and COO had to resign.

In an internal review it was found that the mindset of “win at all costs” needed to be changed so a new strategy was necessary due to the reputational damage done by the LIBOR affair and new regulatory restrictions. 

In 2012, Antony Jenkins became new CEO. He made the following changes in 2014, which led to increase of 8% in share price.

Aspirations

The word “Capital” was removed from the firm name, which became just Barclays. To concentrate on the U.S. and UK markets, on Africa, and on a small number of Asian clients, the “world leader” goal was dropped.

Business model

Physical commodities and obscure “derivative” products would no longer be traded by Barclays. It was decided that rather than using its customers’ money, the business would invest its own.

Only thirty percent of the bank’s profits came from investment banking. Instead of concentrating on lending at high risk, the focus was on a smaller range of customers.

In place of an aggressive, short-term growth strategy that rewarded commercial drive and success and fostered a culture of fear of not meeting targets, “customer first,” clarity, and openness took precedence. Investment bankers’ remuneration was also reduced.

Beginning in 2014, branches were shut, and 19,000 jobs were lost over three years, including 7,000 investment banking employees, personnel at high-street firms, and many in New York and London headquarters. £1.7 billion in costs were reduced in 2014.

There was an increase in customers’ online or mobile banking, and increased automation of transactions to lower expenses.  To assist customers in using new computer systems, 30 fully automated branches were established by 2014, replacing the 6,500 cashiers that were lost to this change with “digital eagles” who used iPads.

These changes were made to build an organization that is stronger, more integrated, leaner, and more streamlined, leading to a higher return on equity and better returns for shareholders. This was also done to rebuild the bank’s credibility and win back the trust of its clients.

4. Kodak – a failure to embrace disruptive change

The first digital camera and the first-megapixel camera were both created by Kodak in 1975 and 1986 respectively.

Why then did Kodak declare bankruptcy in 2012? 

When this new technology first came out in 1975, it was expensive and had poor quality of images. Kodak anticipated that it would be at least additional ten years until digital technology started to pose a threat to their long-standing business of camera, film, chemical, and photo-printing paper industries.

Although that prediction came true, Kodak chose to increase the film’s quality through ongoing advances rather than embracing change and working on digital technology.

Kodak continued with old business model and captured market by 90% of the film and 85% of the cameras sold in America in 1976. With $16 billion in annual sales at its peak, Kodak’s profits in 1999 was around $2.5 billion. The brand’s confidence was boosted by this success but there was complete complacency in terms of embracing new technology.

Kodak started experiencing losses in 2011 as revenues dropped to $6.2 billion. 

Fuji, a competitor of Kodak, identified the same threat and decided to transition to digital while making the most money possible from film and creating new commercial ventures, such as cosmetics based on chemicals used in film processing.

Even though both businesses had the same information, they made different judgments, and Kodak was reluctant to respond. And when it started to switch towards digital technology, mobile phones with in-built digital camera had arrived to disrupt digital cameras.

Although Kodak developed the technology, they were unaware of how revolutionary digitalization would prove to be, rendering their long-standing industry obsolete.

You can read here in detail Kodak change management failure case study.

5. Heinz   – a 3G way to make changes

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the Brazilian private equity business 3G Capital paid $29 billion in 2013 to acquire Heinz, the renowned food manufacturer with $11.6 billion in yearly sales.

The modifications were made right away by the new owners. Eleven of the top twelve executives were replaced, 600 employees were let go, corporate planes were sold, personal offices were eliminated, and executives were required to stay at Holiday Inn hotel rather than the Ritz-Carlton when traveling and substantially longer work hours were anticipated. 

Each employee was given a monthly copy restriction of 200 by micromanagement, and printer usage was recorded. Only 100 business cards were permitted each year for executives.

Numerous Heinz workers spoke of “an insular management style” where only a small inner circle knows what is truly going on.

On the other side, 3G had a youthful team of executives, largely from Brazil, who moved from company to company as instructed across nations and industries. They were loyal to 3G, not Heinz, and were motivated to perform well to earn bonuses or stock options. 

“The 3G way,” a theory that 3G has applied to bring about change in prior acquisitions like Burger King, was the driving reason behind these modifications. Everything was measured, efficiency was paramount, and “nonstrategic costs” were drastically reduced. 

From this vantage point, “lean and mean” prevails, and human capital was not regarded as a crucial element of business success. It was believed that rather than being driven by a feeling of purpose or mission, employees were motivated by the financial gains associated with holding company stock.

Because it had been well-received by the 3G partners, those who might be impacted by a deal frequently saw a “how to” guide published by consultant Bob Fifer as a “must read.”

However, many food industry experts felt that while some of 3G’s prior acquisitions would have been ideal candidates for a program of cost-cutting, Heinz was not the most appropriate choice to “hack and slash.” The company had already undergone several years of improved efficiency and it was already a well-established player in the market.

In summarizing the situation, business journalists Jennifer Reingold and Daniel Roberts predicted that “the experiment now underway will determine whether Heinz will become a newly invigorated embodiment of efficiency—or whether 3G will take the cult of cost-cutting so far that it chokes off Heinz’s ability to innovate and make the products that have made it a market leader for almost a century and a half.” 

Final Words

A short case study on change management can be a helpful tool in learning how to effectively manage change. These case studies will show you how one company successfully managed a major change and what lessons can be learned from their experience. By studying these case studies, you will gain valuable insights into the importance of planning, communication, and employee involvement when managing change. These are all vital elements that must be considered when implementing any type of change within an organization.

About The Author

Tahir Abbas

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